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For the most part, South Africans are warm, friendly, polite, proud that they are the first African country to host the World Cup, and desperate to make the tournament a success.

The government is intensely aware that the country will be on show in a way it has not been since the advent of democracy in 1994, and hundreds of millions of pounds are being poured into infrastructure investment, with airports, train lines and bus systems all being refurbished or newly-built in time for the event, as well as a number of huge and stunning stadiums.

But the country suffers from one key challenge and a range of smaller ones that will make the 2010 World Cup very different to all the others that have gone before.

Almost 50 people are murdered every day in South Africa, a country with a comparable population to England, one of the highest rates in the world.

Of course, the vast majority of crime takes place in poverty-stricken townships that are a long way from tourist itineraries, and most visitors never experience it. But it is a threat that is ever-present â€“ most South Africans who can afford to do so live behind high walls and electric fences â€“ and while Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the 2010 organising committee, is at pains to point out at every opportunity that crime is a risk in any major city around the world, his reassurances are an unfortunately short-sighted strategy. Instead, visitors need to be warned to be careful, even though most victims are simply unlucky.

Security in and around the stadiums themselves will undoubtedly be tight, and there are unlikely to be major problems at the matches. The difficulty comes in ensuring the safety of an expected 450,000 visitors across the country, which simply cannot be done.

Notoriously, when the qualifying draw was to be held in Durban in 2007, Jackie Selebi, the then national police commissioner â€“ who is now awaiting trial on corruption charges â€“ promised that no one coming for the event would be a victim of crime. After Peter Burgstaller, an Austrian goalkeeper turned sports consultant, was shot dead on a golf course for about Â£25 and his mobile phone authorities tried to claim he did not count as he was not an official delegate.

Other practical issues will be concentrated on accommodation and transport. Even before England secured qualification, at the start of this month the UK ranked third in terms of tickets sold for the finals, after the hosts and the US, with 45,000. There will simply not be sufficient hotel rooms in the country for the expected numbers, and those wanting to go should start their accommodation search now, even though England's match venues will not become clear until the group draw in December.

The tournament is being held in the depths of the winter, and camping is likely to be brutally cold, particularly on the highveld plateau which includes Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Rustenburg, and much of which is over 5,000 feet.

Travel between matches will be the other main difficulty. Distances in the country are vast â€“ South Africans think nothing of the six-hour drive from Johannesburg to Durban â€“ and all the teams' group games are being spread around different cities, for reasons of fairness.

Package companies are already preparing their own means of transport, but anyone planning on travelling independently should be securing their hire cars as soon as possible.

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The only way is to create 'safe' areas in the Towns and search every single person entering or exiting. Armed giyrds all round.

This may also sound racist but they will probably have an unofficial 'if you are black you are not getting in policy' for most South Africans. How else exactly do they have any chance of avoiding tens or even hundreds of deaths ? These people have no issue shooting someone for a few quid on a normal day. If there are literally hundreds of thousands of drunk foreigners wandering around ? It would be too easy for them. I work with a few people from South Africa. They are not hopeful. Interestign thing when you chat to anyone from South Africa. They actually tell you it is worse over there than we think. That is ******ing scary. Real shame because it looks like a stunning place.

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I hope none die, but it would be nice to see all the chavs get the wind put up them so they can see what a real ghetto is like, not the **** end of some middle england town where they think revving there shitty little nova is propa gangsta and effin and blinding is well ard innit.

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The only way is to create 'safe' areas in the Towns and search every single person entering or exiting. Armed giyrds all round.

This may also sound racist but they will probably have an unofficial 'if you are black you are not getting in policy' for most South Africans. How else exactly do they have any chance of avoiding tens or even hundreds of deaths ? These people have no issue shooting someone for a few quid on a normal day. If there are literally hundreds of thousands of drunk foreigners wandering around ? It would be too easy for them. I work with a few people from South Africa. They are not hopeful. Interestign thing when you chat to anyone from South Africa. They actually tell you it is worse over there than we think. That is ******ing scary. Real shame because it looks like a stunning place.

A few south africans where i used to work. One was in a bank hold up and had a gun to the back of her head. Didnt put her off going back though, i think the english weather got the better of her in the end. It seemed to be mostly women going back though. I was told that unless youre connected, its very difficult for white MALES to get work, althougth not so much white females. The whole place sounds like a Socialists/liberals wet dream to me. Its the result of 15 years of hardline leftists being in control. Its gone from one retarded extreme to the other.

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A few south africans where i used to work. One was in a bank hold up and had a gun to the back of her head. Didnt put her off going back though, i think the english weather got the better of her in the end. It seemed to be mostly women going back though. I was told that unless youre connected, its very difficult for white MALES to get work, althougth not so much white females. The whole place sounds like a Socialists/liberals wet dream to me. Its the result of 15 years of hardline leftists being in control. Its gone from one retarded extreme to the other.

It is all very unsurprising though isn't it?

Can't say I feel sorry for the white male Afrikaaners. Run into a few on my travels and they were all to a man arrogant, insufferable pricks.

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The other interesting aspect is how will our hard core hooligans react? How will our big brave boys who love a fight cope with people who just carry guns and shoot?

There could be little football hooliganism at this tournament simply because the country itself is so violent or will the nice police create nice safe areas for the hooligans to fight amongst themselves?

The Louis Theroux programme on SA a few months back was truly frightening and the world governing body decide to host a major tournament there.

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Thats the exact thing all my co-workers said about them, arrogant! Cant say i had any problems with them, although afaik they werent boers, athough they all seemed to get viewed/treated this way.

I guess if i had thousands of acres of sun drenched ranch to lord around on, and then had to move to a smelly old mid terrace in England i might sound a *bit* arrogant too though.

This was in Asia. Nothing to do with housing, just their general superior attitude. Think they are a cut above.

The other interesting aspect is how will our hard core hooligans react? How will our big brave boys who love a fight cope with people who just carry guns and shoot?

There could be little football hooliganism at this tournament simply because the country itself is so violent or will the nice police create nice safe areas for the hooligans to fight amongst themselves?

The Louis Theroux programme on SA a few months back was truly frightening and the world governing body decide to host a major tournament there.

Good point. The Rugby World Cup was fine, but then the football world cup is a different order of magnitude.

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The other interesting aspect is how will our hard core hooligans react? How will our big brave boys who love a fight cope with people who just carry guns and shoot?

There could be little football hooliganism at this tournament simply because the country itself is so violent or will the nice police create nice safe areas for the hooligans to fight amongst themselves?

The Louis Theroux programme on SA a few months back was truly frightening and the world governing body decide to host a major tournament there.

Indeed. He is usually unflappable even in the most dangerous situation. Yet in SA ? He was clearly literally crapping his pants. People about to get burnt alive. The place is mental.

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This was in Asia. Nothing to do with housing, just their general superior attitude. Think they are a cut above.

Good point. The Rugby World Cup was fine, but then the football world cup is a different order of magnitude.

Interesting point. Anyone around at that point ? What was it like ? Was 1 full 14 years ago though. Things have got a lot worse by all accounts. And the sheer number of football fans will be much mch higher.

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The only way is to create 'safe' areas in the Towns and search every single person entering or exiting. Armed giyrds all round.

This may also sound racist but they will probably have an unofficial 'if you are black you are not getting in policy' for most South Africans. How else exactly do they have any chance of avoiding tens or even hundreds of deaths ? These people have no issue shooting someone for a few quid on a normal day. If there are literally hundreds of thousands of drunk foreigners wandering around ? It would be too easy for them. I work with a few people from South Africa. They are not hopeful. Interestign thing when you chat to anyone from South Africa. They actually tell you it is worse over there than we think. That is ******ing scary. Real shame because it looks like a stunning place.

Doubt it. The white South Africans that I have known have little interest in football. Popularity of sport among them is:

1) Rugby (The official religion)

2) Cricket

3) Jukskei

4 to 20 Minority sports - tennis, bowls etc

21) Football

Curiously, many English speaking white South Africans notionally support an English premiership team. I think that is more about good manners and being able to attempt to maintain a conversation with the English people that they meet.

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Doubt it. The white South Africans that I have known have little interest in football. Popularity of sport among them is:

1) Rugby (The official religion)

2) Cricket

3) Jukskei

4 to 20 Minority sports - tennis, bowls etc

21) Football

Curiously, many English speaking white South Africans notionally support an English premiership team. I think that is more about good manners and being able to attempt to maintain a conversation with the English people that they meet.

p-o-p

I will be very interested to see how they go about all this. As you say the whites are not interested in the sport. However for a World Cup ? I am sure their interest will appear from nowhere. The blacks are however mad for it. On the other hand the people who generally walk up and shoot people in the face ? Black. No easy answer to all this. Nae luck to the chap in charge of organising this.